From: "Robert Borski" 
Subject: Re: (urth) the dog-boy of Carnies Past
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2002 13:32:35 -0500

Roy responding to me again:

> A quibble: the Golden Year is the year Den met Lois and Sherry, when he
was
> about 45, and before he became president. His meeting with Charlie took
> place a few years later, after he was president.

I was going by the timeline in the Peace Indexicon, where under the Golden
Year, six events are listed, including the following: "Charlie Turner, the
dog man, arrives unexpectedly."

> >And if the second picture is a snapshot of Tom and Den--taken after the
latter
> >possibly checks out the carnival as potential home for his illegitimate
> >child, or after having trysted with part-time hooker Candy--this might
> >explain why Charlie sent it to him.

> Either I'm seriously misreading you, or this last sentence of this
paragraph
> contradicts the first (quoted above). If "both pictures are from a much
> earlier time--and clearly predate the Golden Year", and if the two men are
> Tom and Den, then you have Den looking for a home for a teenage daughter
he
> begot on a 16 year old Sherry he hasn't even met yet!

No, you have it right exactly. Because as I've been attempting to
demonstrate all along it is not possible to construct a hard and true
chronological ordering of the events in PEACE. There are just too many
contradictions and mutually-exclusive events.

Example 1: If the mystery man in the second photo is J. Smart as you
suggest, when was it taken? At the same time as the Candy photo? (Both are
sepia toned and depict old-fashioned styles of dress and coiffure.) If at
differing times, why do each still depict similar antequated fashion
sensibilities--and why now, all of a sudden, has Charlie sent the much older
photo of Smart and young Tom to Den? Also, if the mystery man is Smart, why
does Den claim he's never met him? Similarly, why doesn't Miss Hadow
recognize Smart?

Counter-example 1: If the mystery man in the second photo is D. Weer, why is
the giant wearing the old-fashioned vest and watch, which dates from a much
earlier time  period? (Is he modeling himself on fashion guru J. Smart as a
tribute to his creator? Or can he only afford rummage sale bargains, there
not being a whole lot of money in being a sideshow freak?) Why doesn't Miss
Hadow recognize Weer or Weer admit that he is the man in the photo and
therefore knows the giant? (I've suggested one solution.)

Example 2: the Birkhead anomaly.

Example 3: Once again, I cite the scene where Den has sex with Sherry Gold.
Sixteen-year old Sherry shows up at Weer's door and Den invites her in. Says
Den to the girl: "Excuse me for not rising. I have suffered a stroke
resulting in partial paralysis of my leg." Kind-hearted Sherry, though
nervous (as Wolfe tells us), responds, "That's all right."

But how can this be? Den's stroke is years in the future--long after he has
sex with Sherry Gold. It's clearly impossible--and yet there it is, right on
the page before us. Possible solutions include: 1) post-stroke Den is
looking back to the encounter and re-imagining it from the perspective of
his current present, complete with revisionist dialogue; 2) Den, adrift in a
maze of memories, is conflating events, as confused or disoriented as anyone
who's suffered a stroke, or in the twilight of their life has vivid
recollections of their childhood, but can't remember what they had to eat
yesterday.

Unfortunately, either solution presents difficulties with placing this or
any other event within a real-time continuum--thereby making all proofs
requiring a strict chronology invalid.

Time, in PEACE, is a river that runs everywhere.

Robert Borski






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